AK - The Alchemy Kingdom

Year 2, Spring, Second Month, First Week.

“Today is the first hunt for many of you, just stick to your training and everything will be fine... We'll be hunting wolf packs and any other LT beats that we find near the water stream... Remember, no wandering off the formation and keep your weapons ready at all times.”

Diana made a visual check to see if all the team members looked ready. After making a checklist of possible problems and situations, the team of 25 left the village.

For the past three weeks, the team has made several arrangements to train the 150 newbies. First, they separated 53 villagers from the 73 that didn't pass all the tests in the selection to work as carriers and collectors in the upcoming hunts.

The hunt team was further separated into eight groups of 25 people approximately. Each group would train resistance and live combat together and join their same weapon peers for specif training.

Every week, two groups would leave the village to hunt. So, each member would go out one time a month. Although it would be safer going out in bigger groups, such a group would scare most of the beasts away.

To help taking care of the newbies, the veteran members had agreed to go out two times a month each. Usually, each team would have one or two veterans plus one of the six founders leading them.

Until the other veterans got enough experience leading, Toni, Tael and Diana would fill in for the other three teams, commanding two teams each, while Samia and Sania would command one team each.

They opted for maintaining the three layers circular formation, now formed by six members in each layer.

Diana looked at the scared team members and remembered the first time they went hunting. She was happy living like this, she even started considering if it would be that bad to give up on revenge.

........

‘Why are these seeds special?’

‘-- They have higher quality, probably because they were taken from magic-infused plants. Furthermore, these seeds have been enhanced by a plant Mage. --’

‘So the seeds' quality comes from their origin and of being enhanced by a plant Mage... How about the magic fields?’

‘-- It would be best to check it, but from what the villagers told you, a plant Mage cast a spell on the magic fields. The spell would have to be maintained by a MQ plant crystal and they would need to recast it at least annually. --’

‘How can we replicate it?’

‘-- We do not know the particularities of the spell but its effect should be slowly transmitting plant energy to the crops. --’

Master AI didn't continue explaining but Karl understood how to replicate the speel in the village fields. He would have to stimulate the plant energy and transmit it to all the plants in lower quantities.

The Vitality Enhancer already did part of this task, stimulating plant energy in the crops, so he just needed to amplify and distribute the effect to all plants in the fields. But then, Karl remembered the low effectiveness of the tool.

Even if he improved its effects he would need to spend a lot of magic crystals on it. He couldn’t think of something right now, so he decided to discuss it with the disciples to find a better solution.

After gathering them, he started explaining the problem and all its details. The discussion took hours, but two feasible ideas appeared. Unfortunately, they were too difficult to execute and Karl would have to talk with the Council before deciding.

........

“Shoot it!”

Diana passed the command and five arrows flew towards the wolf pack. Fortunately, some arrows hit the wolves before they started to flee. She didn't waste time and ran forward to finish two wounded wolves.

She was a little disappointed, after walking for five hours the team didn't found many beasts. Besides the two grey wolves, they only managed to hunt one hyena. The newbies wouldn't complain about it, in fact, most of them were grateful for not having to engage any beasts.

Diana looked at the sky and decided it was time to leave. Even though they didn't found a lot of beasts they had collected 12 crystals, four LQ water crystals and eight LQ energy crystals. If they counted the crystals in the beasts they would have a bounty of 15 LQ crystals.

Their journey back was being uneventful until one team member screamed pointing something in the sky. Diana looked and saw several dots coming their way and remembered something.

“Run with me! Take cover under the trees...”

The other members took some time to understand what was happening but the confusion didn't stop them from following Diana to the trees. She remembered something Karl told her about flocks of birds, this type of beast would be very weak but could attack in large groups of dozens or even hundreds.

Although they talked about it, they didn't prepare any counter for the massive air attack. Precious time was passing while Diana tried to come up with a plan, the bird became completely visible when she finally thought of something.

“Everyone! Form triples with a defender, an archer and an attacker... Defenders, position your shields to block attacks coming from above. Archers, don't waste your arrows trying to hit the birds in the sky. Attackers, be prepared... The others, use the LCs as a cover and let me take care of the enemies...”

The desperate villagers finally breathed, most were newbies and didn't know what to do. For some moments, the team arrangements became a mess, defenders moved together, three attackers tried to form a group with one defender and some members didn't move at all.

Fortunately, the birds took some time to start their attack. The beast was a blackline bird, a small blackbird that attacked in groups using its beak and claws, its name came from the black line they drew in the sky when attacking prey.

The birds would use a synchronized flight, following each other towards the target. Differently from the razor sparrow, the blackline bird would continue his dive flying back to the sky, giving no time for its enemy to prepare a counter-attack.

One attacker took too much time to move and couldn't escape the beasts' attack. Several birds dived forming a black string towards the slow team member. The scene was somewhat beautiful until the boy started screaming.

The beasts passed through him taking each, a piece of flesh from the boy. Diana ran towards him already activating her sword's enhancements. She leaped forward slashing her sword around but failed to hit any target.

Fortunately, the boy was only lightly wounded and she was able to stop the birds' group attack momentarily before dragging the boy to the group he was supposed to be and ran back to a better-covered area.

The birds didn't pass on this opportunity and dived towards her. After receiving the first peck, Diana jumped to the ground, turning around to slash her sword against the birds. She missed the offender but hit the next bird that was flying in line before crashing against the ground.

She muffled a pained scream, got up and resume running. The birds tried to dive on her again but failed before she got under the cover of a tree. The birds continued circling in the sky, probably waiting for a chance to attack someone without cover. Diana cursed at the beasts' intelligence and patience.

However, this could also be an opportunity. Before explaining her plan to the others she would have to test it. After taking a long breath, Diana ran towards some other trees, passing through a path without cover.

The birds identified the situation and dived, forming a black line in the sky coming towards her. Diana put all her effort into running, when she was nearing the trees she tried to look back, seeing black blurrings coming from her.

Unexpectedly, Diana slowed down while turning back to slash the birds. The birds identified danger and tried to dodge the sword to scratch her, most were successful, but one bird couldn't change its trajectory fast enough before getting slashed.

Without waiting for a second round, Diana took cover under the trees and the remaining birds flew back to the flock. After stabilizing her breath, she instructed the other team members to bait and attack the birds.

The archers would serve as bait, the defender would continue offering cover while the attacker would be ready to attack. Initially, the baits were a little unwilling to risk themselves, but after Diana pointed out that she and the other attacked boy were fine, they agreed.

Soon, several black lines formed in the sky heading for different targets. The archers counted the seconds, anxious to dive back to the shield's cover, but seconds transformed into minutes in their minds.

The first engagement was a little off, some missed their time and got scratched, others jump back too early causing the birds to fly back instantly. Only one group got it right and successfully slew one bird. Even so, the villagers relaxed a little and started performing the plan better.

After half an hour and a good amount of cuts, the flock finally moved away leaving behind 12 dead birds.

........

“Is everything prepared for the new village fields?”

Karl exchanged a confirming nod with his mother, indicating that she should answer.

“Mostly... The major Arrays are already in place, just waiting for the MQ plant crystal to be activated... Regarding the reinforced fences, we still need a week to finish drawing the Runes.”

Reiner was a little apprehensive, but soon she picked up the pace and became confident. Her job was anything but easy, she had to learn the general concepts of Alchemy, take care of magic inventory, and manage the work schedules of the villagers working under the Alchemy department.

The most challenging task was to distribute the workforce, deciding where their priorities should be placed. The village didn't have a lot of magic tools, but the hunting team's demands for more enhanced weapons and the new village fields kept them overloaded.

To complicate things, the disciples learning pace was too lacking. Actually, Karl said that they were learning fast considering that Alchemy was a difficult craft. With Karls help, some level two disciples could already draw a couple of Arrays, but the level three could do little more than help processing and separating the materials.

Fortunately, the villagers were used to adversity, they worked together to make things happen and adapted when necessary. The hunting team, for example, had to share weapons since they only had 50 or so weapons.

Reiner finished talking and looked at her husband signalizing that it was his time to speak.

“Ah... Half of the fields are sowed and the rest of the land is already prepared and tilted. We’re just waiting for more seeds, they are being brought slowly but we should finish sowing until next month... The workers are prepared to take the MQ plant crystal from the magic fields tomorrow, if nothing unseen happens the fields will be in full operation by tomorrow...”

Kanin got used to his job earlier than Reiner, but he was still stiff when explaining. Initially, he was very apprehensive when Karl suggested moving the village fields outside the barrier, even after he explained the need and benefits, Kanin still thought it was too risky.

Fortunately, all the reports from the hunting team indicated that the beasts were moving a little further from the village. It made their work more difficult but it was a good thing for the village's safety.

Even though he adapted to the farm managing task well, he still met some difficulties, mostly coordinating the villagers to prepare the new fields and provide the resource numbers for the construction. They had to do a lot of modifications because the new fields would need fences and sheds to store the tools.

He also had to rotate the villagers working at the new village fields regularly because of the high concentration of magic energy outside the village. Although the energy could help to improve the body, too much would be like poison before their bodies got used to it.

Even though Karl had spread the habit of using detoxifying herbs for daily cooking, they had limited resources and the herbs could only do so much.

Also, the WET was being extended from the water wells to the new fields, forming bamboo paths of up to 50 meters. Fortunately, he only had to arrange the designs and numbers because the crafting would fall under the Crafting department.

After Kanin talked, Katlyn started explaining the Hunting department's part without any difficulty, she was indeed Marlen's daughter.

“All the priority materials have been collected and handled to the Alchemy department. The new fields' security is working without problems. We set a schedule to have four team members looking after the fields at all times. In the beginning, we had some problems with the night watch but it's already solved.”

The new fields were located right beside the old fields but outside the barrier. Since they would be exposed to beasts, the villagers had to keep watch over them. They also had to make fences to discourage beasts from trying to get near it.

The fences were placed 20 meters from the fields allowing the security team to walk freely inside. The watchers would also keep a fire burning all night, helping them see clearly and to further scare the beasts.

To prevent the beasts from breaking the fences, Karl drew Toughness Runes in the bamboos. Since he didn't have time to finish drawing in all bamboos, they had to place the reinforced ones in strategic positions until he could finish.